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How to showcase traditional game artifacts in a modern and interactive way.
2026 | Museum
Asian Civilisations
Museum, Singapore
THE LOCAL MOTIVE
Countries in Asia have had a rich history of social games as part of local traditions serving as modes of community building. These games have become a part of their cultural heritage and they have evolved and taken different forms in various regions over time. When a Singaporean Museum wanted to re-imagine a unique, limited-edition Poker Cards Deck taking inspiration from the objects featured in the exhibition, we saw an opportunity to help them build a visual story that ties the individual traditional artifacts of various games that originated in different Asian countries together into a single contemporary deck of cards with an insightful visual story as playing cards are also a part of the community-games culture.
DESIGN:
Concept, Illustration, Art Direction, Creative Direction
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Illustrations by Pratap Chalke
DESIGN PROBLEM :
These artifacts—originating from different regions, time periods, and social contexts—carry distinct visual languages, symbolism, material qualities, and cultural meanings. The core problem was to translate these historically rich yet stylistically diverse elements into a cohesive, contemporary illustration system suitable for a single deck of playing cards. This required careful abstraction: identifying underlying patterns, structural motifs, and shared philosophies—rather than directly replicating ornamental details by establishing a single illustrative language based on simplified geometric forms so that motifs from different origins could coexist without visual conflict.
IMPACT
“The poker cards are designed as a giveaway to complement the visitor experience. We’re glad they align well with the Let’s Play theme exhibition at ACM, adding an interactive takeaway that enhances overall engagement and retail value. The local team is efficient in revising the artwork, the designs are detailed and well execute.”
BREAKDOWN OF THE CARDS
A peak into the elements and the story that inspired the deck of cards.
DESIGN CONCEPT
The design is rooted in the universal idea that games are not merely objects of competition, but powerful social rituals that bring people together.
At the heart of the design is the player’s hand interacting with game pieces—a symbolic and visual anchor that represents participation, connection, and shared experience.
Complementing this central motif are patterns and visual elements derived from historical game pieces found within the museum collection unified by colours and simplified geometric patterns.
MUSEUM ARTIFACTS
The design draws inspiration from ancient game artifacts preserved in the museum collection, including traditional game pieces from various Asian countries.
INITIAL ROUGH SKETCHES
In the initial iteration, hands became the most important element of the design to connect all the pieces in a single composition bringing alive the idea of community games being social rituals that bring people together.
FINAL DESIGNS
To spotlight the game pieces more, in the final designs, the element of hands was minimized to a playful use case in certain places.
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